Written by: Gary Fahey, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In the personal development world, it is as ubiquitous as references to 'living your best life'. You cannot open a self-help book, magazine or TikTok without being encouraged to adopt a morning routine – just like the most successful people on the planet.
But why exactly is a morning routine so successful? And does what you put in it matter?
It is clear that for a large percentage of successful people – athletes, entrepreneurs, business moguls and single mothers alike – the morning routine is a cornerstone for their success. The pillar on which their day, their week, their month and their life is built upon. But it is just as clear that the single mother who has breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared, a weeks' worth of clothes ready to go and her HIIT workout in all before the first of her three young'uns stumbles into her room for a cuddle has a completely different morning ritual to Elon Musk, LeBron James or Gary Vaynerchuk.
Whether conscious or not, we all have a morning routine. Some structured and some a little more 'loose' but how you structure your morning routine may well be more powerful than the elements that make it up. There is no doubt that, in a morning routine that includes healthy, positive rituals such as exercise, reading or journalling, meditation, or the cursed cold shower those specific elements will bring their own benefits, however, it is the message that the morning routine delivers to your subconscious that is the most powerful driver of success.
In life, each of us eventually lives up to the story we tell ourselves, and while our words matter, our actions matter more. The conscious inclusion of a morning routine built on healthy, positive and proactive elements sends the signal to your subconscious that YOU are important, your goals MATTER and that you are COMMITTED to opportunities for improvement.
The converse is also true. The more disorganized your morning, the more often you 'subconsciously' hit snooze on your alarm clock and the more often you default to the easy option, the more the story is reinforced that there is nothing about your day (or your life) that is exciting enough to get you motivated to move.
Proven in neuroscience
This isn't just a 'hit and hope' experiment based on some whoo whoo guru mentality. In a study conducted at Harvard Medical School, Alvaro Pascual-Leone showed that "mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization of the motor outputs to the one observed in the group of subjects that physically practised the movements" when he compared a group of participants who physically interacted and learned the piano through practice and a group that learned entirely through visualization.
The reticular activating system is a part of our brain that filters out unnecessary information and puts a highlighter across information we understand to be important. Our understanding of what is important to us is determined by the stories (conscious and subconscious) that we tell ourselves and continue to tell ourselves. When we believe something to be important to us, when we have created that underlying story, our reticular activating system is on alert for the opportunity that the 'thing' might become available. If those 'things' are negative, your reticular activating system will be hyper-focused on those negatives, if your 'things' are positive your reticular activating system will be hyper-focused on those positives and if your 'things' are opportunities related to your potential, guess where your attention will be focused.
By way of an example, have you ever brought a new car? Let's say a red Ford. How many red Fords do you see on the road the next day? In reality, you see just as many as you did the day before, except the day before they were not relevant enough to warrant a place in your reticular activating system. They were there, you did actually see them, but their irrelevance led to their 'invisibility'. The same occurs with visualizing our goals. The more specific, the more emotional and the more visual the closer to them you become.
What this means for your morning routine
Actions trump words, in particular when there is significant distance between what comes out of our lips and how we show up in our lives, and your morning routine is no different. The 'things' that make up your morning routine should involve a small amount of discomfort, but they should also reflect the type of person you are working towards becoming. Think about 'your best self' in 12 months' time. What are the thoughts, beliefs, and actions that exist in that version of you and how can you set up your morning TODAY to work towards that vision?
Creating a conscious, healthy, positive and proactive morning routine is not powerful because of the 'things' that make it up, it is powerful because it signals to your subconscious that YOU are important, your goals MATTER and that you are COMMITTED to opportunities for improvement.
It's time to make friends with cold showers. Your successful self can thank me later.
Gary Fahey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Chief Life Strategist and founder of Strong Men’d, Gary Fahey is a mental strength and conditioning specialist, mental health and addiction counsellor, highly sought-after speaker and bestselling author who embodies the mantra of “Lived it, Learned it, Earned it.” His unique Brutal Honesty brand was forged through 18 years with the Australian Federal Police, leading the Australian Prime Minister’s Personal Protection Team and managing the strategic and operational responsibilities of the Office of Commissioner, all while (silently) battling a deep, dark and destructive battle with mental health. Combining his ‘on the job’ lived experience with a Master in Brain and Mind Sciences, an MBA and a work ethic that turned his personal struggle into his greatest success, Gary has worked with, studied under and learned from experts around the world to develop his own practical systems and strategies, helping high performing individuals, teams and companies build identity, purpose and sustained success.
